Design

by G. Lloyd Helm

Javi Holis, eldest son of a successful family of tapestry makers, joins a group of religious recluses. He discovers powers hidden in a collection of Mandala designs and spends his life learning how to use them in the service of the god called the Maker of All. When a technologically superior galactic empire invades the world of Javi Holis, the invaders are considered gods. The empire pacifies Archlea, unwittingly dispersing belief in “The Design” throughout the empire where that belief then flourishes. After six hundred years, the Empire of the Kadeki “gods” is collapsing. An Archlean fair witness (a notary public) goes to the slave auctions to buy a house slave and is manipulated into buying a particular slave. He has come to protect and preserve a book of Mandalai hidden by Javi Holis before his death. This is the Book of the Design, and it must be preserved at all costs.

356 pages

First published February 6, 2006

About the author

G. Lloyd Helm has been writing for 40 years, having published poetry in a wide variety of magazines and newspapers including “The New York Poetry Anthology,” “Stars and Stripes News,” “The Los Angeles Times,” “The Antelope Valley Press,” and “The Antelope Valley Anthologies,” among others.

The English journal  “Pilgrimage” published his memoir “Football” in spring 2005, and “4 April, 1968” in the winter of 2008.

 G. Lloyd Helm has published short stories in “Citadel” the literary magazine of Los Angeles City College, “Short Story Library,” The University of S. Illinois’ “Eureka Literary Magazine,” “Tales as like as not,” and London’s “Black Gate Magazine.”   He recently published “Even Up” a Civil War Ghost story at www.ruthlesspeoples.com, an English on line magazine, and the short story “A Lovely Elephant” in “Delivered Magazine” an English fiction journal.  He has also published “The Other Fellows Shoes,” Pulp Empire III, Metahuman Press, Cedar Rapids, and most recently a volume of short stories called "Train Wheels, Flying Saucers, and the Ghost of Tiburcio Vasquez".  Many of these stories appear on the Alfie Dog site.

G. Lloyd Helm has published three novels in the Fantasy and Science Fiction field: Other Doors, Design, and World Without End.  He has also published a literary Romance novel called Sometimes in Dreams.

Reviews

[Pete · Rating 5 out of 5]

Faith in something, belief in something, trust in someone are qualities we all need from time to time if we are to survive being human. These qualities are what the remarkable SciFi novel, "Design" by G. Lloyd Helm, explores on a planet that could be the Earth in either the distant past or future.

Indi Ransis, eldest son of a successful family of tapestry makers in a world known as Archlea, joins a group of religious recluses and takes the name of Javi Holis. He discovers powers hidden in a collection of tapestries, "Mandala," designs and spends his life learning how to use these powers in the service of a god the group calls the Maker of All.
The people of Archlea have long been under the tyrannical control of a technologically superior galactic empire that invaded their world and who demand to be treated as gods- or suffer death.
It takes great faith to believe freedom will be yours, especially if you are persecuted and live in fear for your life for hundreds of years. But the faith of Javi Holis endures hundreds of years beyond his death, though it remains hidden in the minds and hearts of some.
After six hundred years, the Empire of the Kadeki “gods” is collapsing. An Archlean goes to the slave auctions to buy a house slave and is manipulated into buying a particular slave by the slave. The slave believes his part in the "Design" is to find, protect and preserve a book of Mandalai hidden by Javi Holis before his death. This is the Book of the Design, and it must be preserved at all costs, even as the planet undergoes an attack and invasion from yet another distant planet.
Readers who are quick to dismiss a book simply because it belongs to a particular genre, such as SciFi, horror or romance ,often miss out on a good story. Don't make that mistake with "Design."
Design is a story I would recommend to all readers because this is a good, well written story of people who have courage because they have faith - ultimately a faith which extends beyond their god to whom they find difficult to comprehend, but also includes faith in the goodness of beings from another planet who are oppressing them.

Helm is a philosopher and writer who believes SciFi stories should be more than just a diversion. They should make the reader think and question Universe.
He lives on the edge of the Mojave Desert and loves its harsh beauty.
Reviewer: Peter Klein, Allbooks Reviews.
Available at: most online retailers including Amazon and Barnes & Nobel
Title: Design
Author: G. Lloyd Helm
Publisher: PublishAmerica
ISBN: 1-4137-7577-2
Pages:356
Price: $26.96